Betrothals to two girls aimed at carrying on the
lineages of two families

In the 30th year of the Tao Kuang reign period
(1850), when the Master was eleven years old, his father returned to
Ch'uan Chou. The aging grandmother of the Chou clan was determined
that her grandson would have a wife. In order to continue his
uncle's lineage as well, the Master was to become heir to two
lineages, and so it was that one woman from the T'ien family and one
from the T'an family were promised in marriage. Both families,
originally from Hsiang-hsiang County in Hunan Province, were
Mandarins residing in Fukien Province and had remained friends for
generations. All of the relatives and in-laws approved of the
fathers'choices. So following the orders of his parents and the
words of the matchmakers, he was betrothed.

The verse says:
It is proper and fitting that families should
accord with natural relations.
Quiet and graceful, chaste and
tranquil, they were exceptional women.
Pure in action, perfecting
cultivation, they were comrades in the Dharma,
Without any selves,
without any home. without any form or space.